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Once, long ago, someone had tried to have a talk with Sherry about things like personal boundaries. She'd listened, she'd learned, she usually kept to rules about space and privacy and things like that. Except for those times when she just had to check on someone, or talk to them. If she could muster up the courage to do it, she did.

It had taken her ages to talk herself into actually walking all the way down there. Even several minutes to get herself out the corridor and into the room. She hadn't even knocked, since she expected him to unconscious.

She went about it quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone. It wasn't until she was practically next to his bed that she even noticed he was awake. She should have left right then. There were a lot of things in Sherry's life she should have done.

"Good. You're still alive."

She scowled at that.

"What does that mean?" Though she knew. She knew.

It was still easy to call that anger up, so she did. "Me?" What had she been thinking? She'd wondered that herself, but she knew. She'd been selfish, and she'd been helpless and she hadn't been able to think of anything else to do. She'd been terrified and honestly thought they were all dead. And she'd had no intention of leaving without him, if she could help it. No intention of letting him die before her. It all boiled down to her being selfish, just like Armagnac had said.

She knew he wouldn't want to hear that. She wasn't ready to tell him anyway.


"What," she stepped closer to the bed, "were you thinking running off like that?"

Sherry frowned at him when he ignored her question and pressed on. Fine. She stayed as calm as she could, looking him in the eye when she answered his annoying questions.

"Nothing. I wasn't going to accomplish anything by that, so I must be pretty stupid. We were as good as dead anyway. Best case scenario, it bought some time. Even I knew that was a long shot. I just...couldn't stand watching you die again." She was looking at the floor by the time she was finished. She knew he was going to yell at her again.

She didn't care.

"I know. I'm stupid," she muttered, arms crossing in front of her self-consciously. "And I know what my feelings are worth to you. You've been clear, but you do not have the right to call them 'petty'." They were hers, not his.

Her anger was slipping, which was bad. She'd cry if it she let go of it. "You are the one that asked me. Why would I say 'no'? That doesn't even make sense, Jake. Or maybe it does to the idiot who ran off alone after some shadow, so you tell me." Her voice had grown in volume. "What were you thinking?"

About what exactly? She'd let him figure that out.

She remembered the text. It had mentioned Chester. She'd gone because Chester had asked Jake to bring her. He couldn't even tell her that.

She subject change had caught her off guard, almost. He'd asked her similar things before. Chester had asked her, too.

"He... Chester asked me to keep an eye on you." Maybe not those exact words, but close enough. "That's the only..." She couldn't lie.

"He did ask that, and I do feel guilty for being so useless. Mostly though, I'm worried about you." She stepped up next to the bed, not necessarily wanting to speak too loudly. "I told you before. The extent of my feelings doesn't matter. I still count you as my friend, even after... If I do still have feelings for you beyond that of a friend, it's... " She still didn't know how to put it into words.

"Chester told me you push people away to protect them. You know that's silly, right? If you're doing it to protect yourself that's one thing, but to say it's for the sake of others? Sure, you were stubborn and arrogant and rash and a little gruff, but... Jake, I honestly had a lot of fun with you until you decided I needed to not be in your life. You're not a bad person. When you laugh, not the mean laughter, the other kind, it's really pleasant. Same thing when you smile... when you're not trying to be mean. The rest of the time you are you, and I like that. I like being around you. It makes me happy. I feel..." She stopped then, realizing two things. One, she'd been rambling, and she really had no idea what she'd been saying. Two, she'd been about to tell him something that she knew he didn't want to hear.

"I'm not here to gain anything, I only came to make sure you were ok."

Sherry blinked in an attempt to hide her surprise at his initial response. She'd...been expecting a lot more straight up yelling. He wasn't doing that though, he was talking and...Did he even realize he was doing it? He was spouting actual feelings at her again, letting her see he wasn't the cold, sadistic b*****d he'd told Armagnac he was. Standing there, watching him curl up hurt a little. More than a little.

Sighing, Sherry let her fingers run over the bed covers. "What part of 'I'm stupid' did you miss? I can't just... Jake. If I get hurt it's my own doing. No one makes me do anything I don't want to do."

She bit her lip. He wasn't going to like this. "I see this." Her finger poked his arm. "I've seen this part of you before. And the happy part. You're human, you makes mistakes and you learn from them."